Jonathan Shannon | Hunter College (original) (raw)

My Books by Jonathan Shannon

Research paper thumbnail of Performing al-Andalus: Music and Nostalgia across the Mediterranean (Indiana University Press, 2015)

A study of the performance of Andalusian identities in Syria, Morocco, and Spain, with an emphasi... more A study of the performance of Andalusian identities in Syria, Morocco, and Spain, with an emphasis on musical performance. Indiana University Press, 2015 (Forthcoming)

Research paper thumbnail of A Wintry Day in Damascus: Syrian Stories (Nawfara Books, 2012)

Ethnographic fiction about Syrian society on the eve of revolution. New York: Nawfara Books, 2012.

Research paper thumbnail of Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria (Wesleyan University Press, 2006)

Selected Papers by Jonathan Shannon

Research paper thumbnail of “Musical and Culinary Itineraries around the Mediterranean: Taking Cultures Offshore.”

Oxford Handbooks Online, Dec 2015

Research paper thumbnail of “Rhetorics of al-Andalus in Syrian Popular Culture: Or, There and Back Again.” International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 48 No. 1 (Feb. 2016), pp. 5-24.

Research paper thumbnail of "Routes and Itineraries of Culture in the New Mediterranean: Or, Algiers, Capital of Modernity."

Routes and Itineraries of Culture in the New Mediterranean potentialities. A sea-based metaphor, ... more Routes and Itineraries of Culture in the New Mediterranean potentialities. A sea-based metaphor, I argue, will help us to capture these dynamics and at the same time rethink the nature of boundaries and how they are formed, enforced, and overcome in the Mediterranean region.

Research paper thumbnail of “Andalusian Music, Cultures of Tolerance and the Negotiation of Collective Memories: Deep Listening in the Mediterranean.” Cuadernos de Etnomusicología 2:101-116. (2012)

Research paper thumbnail of “Jewish Fingers and Phantom Musical Presences: Remembrance of Jewish Musicians in 20th C. Aleppo, Syria.” In Musical Exodus: Al-Andalus and its Jewish Diasporas. Ruth David, ed. Scarecrow Press.

Research paper thumbnail of “Moving Sounds.” In A Companion to Muslim Cultures. ed. Amyn B. Sajoo. Muslim Heritage Series. Institute for Ismaili Studies. London: Tauris. Pp. 165-184. (2012)

Research paper thumbnail of “Suficized Musics of Syria at the Intersection of Heritage and The War on Terror.” In Muslim Rap, Halal Soaps, and Revolutionary Theater: Critical 4 Perspectives on Islam and Performing Arts. Ed. Karin Van Nieuwkerk. Austin: University of Texas Press. PP. 257-274. (2011)

Research paper thumbnail of “Muwashshah” and “Qudud Halabiyya.” In The Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Vol. 3: Genres. Ed. John Shepherd et al., London and New York: Continuum. (2010)

Research paper thumbnail of “Music in Historic Cairo.” In Living With the Past: Historic Cairo. Ed. Elizabeth Fernea, Farhad Daftary, and Azim Nanji. London: Institute of Ismaili Studies. (2010)

Research paper thumbnail of “Village Homes.” Ethnologia Europaea 37 (1-2):118-123. (2008)

Research paper thumbnail of “Andalusian Music.” In The Encyclopedia of Islam. Third Ed. Leiden: Brill. (2007)

Research paper thumbnail of “Practicing Music in Aleppo.” In La Syrie au présent (Present Day Syria). B. Dupret, Z. Ghazzal, and Y. Courbage, eds. Damascus, Syria: Institut Français du Proche-Orient. (2007)

Research paper thumbnail of “Composition, Tradition and the Anxiety of Musical Influence in Syrian and Moroccan Andalusian Musics.” Proceedings Congrès des Musiques dans le Monde de l’Islam/Conference on Musics in the World of Islam. Assilah, August 8-13, 2007. Ed. Pierre Bois. Fondation du Forum d’Assilah.

Research paper thumbnail of “Performing al-Andalus, Remembering al-Andalus: Mediterranean Soundings from Mashriq to Maghrib.” Journal of American Folklore. 120(477):308-334. (2007)

This article examines how the concepts of "al-Andalus" and "Andalusian music" serve as touchstone... more This article examines how the concepts of "al-Andalus" and "Andalusian music" serve as touchstones for cultural identity in contemporary Syria and Morocco. I investigate how the performance of Andalusian music promotes ideologies of communal, national, and transnational identity in these diverse contexts. Attention to the trans-Mediterranean links among performers and consumers of Andalusian music reveals the often contradictory ways that expressive culture orients complex flows of ideologies and peoples across the boundaries of the contemporary Mediterranean. Sanastarji' iyâki in sha' allah yastarji' reconquista al-firdaws almafqûd firdawsuna al-mafqûd For al-Andalus medina

Research paper thumbnail of “Metonyms of Modernity in Contemporary Syrian Music and Painting.” Ethnos 70(3):361-386. (2005)

This essay examines painting and music in modern Syria as cultural practices that give voice to m... more This essay examines painting and music in modern Syria as cultural practices that give voice to modernist sensibilities. I argue that two important spatial and temporal tropes structure the aesthetics of authenticity in Syrian visual and musical arts: the old city and the countryside. Through recourse to these metonymic representations and evocations, Syrian artists articulate a vision of modernity in which discourses of emotion and sentiment are important bases of authentic Syrian cultural identity. In this manner they offer an alternative to European ideologies of modernity that have stressed rationality. At the same time they promote critical responses to the modern Syrian state.

Research paper thumbnail of “Aleppo,” “Damascus,” and “Syria.” In The Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Vol. 2: Locations. Ed. John Shepherd et al., London and New York: Continuum. (2005)

Research paper thumbnail of “The Aesthetics of Spiritual Practice and the Creation of Moral and Musical Subjectivities in Aleppo, Syria.” Ethnology 43(4):381-391. (2004)

Research paper thumbnail of Performing al-Andalus: Music and Nostalgia across the Mediterranean (Indiana University Press, 2015)

A study of the performance of Andalusian identities in Syria, Morocco, and Spain, with an emphasi... more A study of the performance of Andalusian identities in Syria, Morocco, and Spain, with an emphasis on musical performance. Indiana University Press, 2015 (Forthcoming)

Research paper thumbnail of A Wintry Day in Damascus: Syrian Stories (Nawfara Books, 2012)

Ethnographic fiction about Syrian society on the eve of revolution. New York: Nawfara Books, 2012.

Research paper thumbnail of Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria (Wesleyan University Press, 2006)

Research paper thumbnail of “Musical and Culinary Itineraries around the Mediterranean: Taking Cultures Offshore.”

Oxford Handbooks Online, Dec 2015

Research paper thumbnail of “Rhetorics of al-Andalus in Syrian Popular Culture: Or, There and Back Again.” International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 48 No. 1 (Feb. 2016), pp. 5-24.

Research paper thumbnail of "Routes and Itineraries of Culture in the New Mediterranean: Or, Algiers, Capital of Modernity."

Routes and Itineraries of Culture in the New Mediterranean potentialities. A sea-based metaphor, ... more Routes and Itineraries of Culture in the New Mediterranean potentialities. A sea-based metaphor, I argue, will help us to capture these dynamics and at the same time rethink the nature of boundaries and how they are formed, enforced, and overcome in the Mediterranean region.

Research paper thumbnail of “Andalusian Music, Cultures of Tolerance and the Negotiation of Collective Memories: Deep Listening in the Mediterranean.” Cuadernos de Etnomusicología 2:101-116. (2012)

Research paper thumbnail of “Jewish Fingers and Phantom Musical Presences: Remembrance of Jewish Musicians in 20th C. Aleppo, Syria.” In Musical Exodus: Al-Andalus and its Jewish Diasporas. Ruth David, ed. Scarecrow Press.

Research paper thumbnail of “Moving Sounds.” In A Companion to Muslim Cultures. ed. Amyn B. Sajoo. Muslim Heritage Series. Institute for Ismaili Studies. London: Tauris. Pp. 165-184. (2012)

Research paper thumbnail of “Suficized Musics of Syria at the Intersection of Heritage and The War on Terror.” In Muslim Rap, Halal Soaps, and Revolutionary Theater: Critical 4 Perspectives on Islam and Performing Arts. Ed. Karin Van Nieuwkerk. Austin: University of Texas Press. PP. 257-274. (2011)

Research paper thumbnail of “Muwashshah” and “Qudud Halabiyya.” In The Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Vol. 3: Genres. Ed. John Shepherd et al., London and New York: Continuum. (2010)

Research paper thumbnail of “Music in Historic Cairo.” In Living With the Past: Historic Cairo. Ed. Elizabeth Fernea, Farhad Daftary, and Azim Nanji. London: Institute of Ismaili Studies. (2010)

Research paper thumbnail of “Village Homes.” Ethnologia Europaea 37 (1-2):118-123. (2008)

Research paper thumbnail of “Andalusian Music.” In The Encyclopedia of Islam. Third Ed. Leiden: Brill. (2007)

Research paper thumbnail of “Practicing Music in Aleppo.” In La Syrie au présent (Present Day Syria). B. Dupret, Z. Ghazzal, and Y. Courbage, eds. Damascus, Syria: Institut Français du Proche-Orient. (2007)

Research paper thumbnail of “Composition, Tradition and the Anxiety of Musical Influence in Syrian and Moroccan Andalusian Musics.” Proceedings Congrès des Musiques dans le Monde de l’Islam/Conference on Musics in the World of Islam. Assilah, August 8-13, 2007. Ed. Pierre Bois. Fondation du Forum d’Assilah.

Research paper thumbnail of “Performing al-Andalus, Remembering al-Andalus: Mediterranean Soundings from Mashriq to Maghrib.” Journal of American Folklore. 120(477):308-334. (2007)

This article examines how the concepts of "al-Andalus" and "Andalusian music" serve as touchstone... more This article examines how the concepts of "al-Andalus" and "Andalusian music" serve as touchstones for cultural identity in contemporary Syria and Morocco. I investigate how the performance of Andalusian music promotes ideologies of communal, national, and transnational identity in these diverse contexts. Attention to the trans-Mediterranean links among performers and consumers of Andalusian music reveals the often contradictory ways that expressive culture orients complex flows of ideologies and peoples across the boundaries of the contemporary Mediterranean. Sanastarji' iyâki in sha' allah yastarji' reconquista al-firdaws almafqûd firdawsuna al-mafqûd For al-Andalus medina

Research paper thumbnail of “Metonyms of Modernity in Contemporary Syrian Music and Painting.” Ethnos 70(3):361-386. (2005)

This essay examines painting and music in modern Syria as cultural practices that give voice to m... more This essay examines painting and music in modern Syria as cultural practices that give voice to modernist sensibilities. I argue that two important spatial and temporal tropes structure the aesthetics of authenticity in Syrian visual and musical arts: the old city and the countryside. Through recourse to these metonymic representations and evocations, Syrian artists articulate a vision of modernity in which discourses of emotion and sentiment are important bases of authentic Syrian cultural identity. In this manner they offer an alternative to European ideologies of modernity that have stressed rationality. At the same time they promote critical responses to the modern Syrian state.

Research paper thumbnail of “Aleppo,” “Damascus,” and “Syria.” In The Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Vol. 2: Locations. Ed. John Shepherd et al., London and New York: Continuum. (2005)

Research paper thumbnail of “The Aesthetics of Spiritual Practice and the Creation of Moral and Musical Subjectivities in Aleppo, Syria.” Ethnology 43(4):381-391. (2004)

Research paper thumbnail of “Sultans of Spin: Syrian Sacred Music on the World Stage.” American Anthropologist. 105(2):266-277.(2003)

Research paper thumbnail of “Intersubjectivity, Temporal Change, and Emotional Experience in Arab Music: Reflections on Tarab.” Cultural Anthropology 18(1):72-98. (2003)

Research paper thumbnail of Review When the Soul is Settled: Music of Iraq Alhaj Rahim Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Irak. Munir Bachir. Maître du luth arabe / Iraq. Munir Bachir. Master of the Arab Lute Maison des Cultures du Monde

Ethnomusicology, 2011

... Arab musical aesthetics, was developed over the course of the twentieth century by a number o... more ... Arab musical aesthetics, was developed over the course of the twentieth century by a number of prominent artists, the elder generation including Muhammad al-Qasabji, Farid al-Atrash, Riad al-Sunbati, and the brothers Jamil and Munir ... Pro-ducer and writer, Janice Esther Tulk. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Knocking Some Sense into Anthropology

American Anthropologist Journal of the American Anthropological Association, 2004

Información del artículo Knocking Some Sense into Anthropology.

Research paper thumbnail of Performing Piety: Singers and Actors in Egypt's Islamic Revival by Karin Van Nieuwkerk (review)

The Middle East Journal, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria by Jonathan Holt Shannon. Wesleyan Univ. Press, Middletown, CT, U.S.A., 2006. 292 pp., illus. Trade. ISBN: 0-8195-6798-1

Leonardo, 2007

... Pickover, Alise Piebalga, Patricia Pisters, Michael Punt, Kathleen Quillian, Harry Rand, Sony... more ... Pickover, Alise Piebalga, Patricia Pisters, Michael Punt, Kathleen Quillian, Harry Rand, Sonya Rapoport, Trace Reddell, Alex Rotas, Henry See, Bill Seeley, Basak Senova, Aparna Sharma, George K. Shortess, Joel Slayton, Yvonne Spielmann, David Surman, Eugene Thacker ...

Research paper thumbnail of Benjamin Brinner, Playing across a Divide: Israeli–Palestinian Musical Encounters (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). Pp. 368. <span class="katex"><span class="katex-mathml"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mn>99.00</mn><mi>c</mi><mi>l</mi><mi>o</mi><mi>t</mi><mi>h</mi><mo separator="true">,</mo></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">99.00 cloth, </annotation></semantics></math></span><span class="katex-html" aria-hidden="true"><span class="base"><span class="strut" style="height:0.8889em;vertical-align:-0.1944em;"></span><span class="mord">99.00</span><span class="mord mathnormal">c</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.01968em;">l</span><span class="mord mathnormal">o</span><span class="mord mathnormal">t</span><span class="mord mathnormal">h</span><span class="mpunct">,</span></span></span></span>25.00 paper

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2011

Research paper thumbnail of al-Muwashshahat and al-qudud al-halabiyya: Two genres in the Aleppine Wasla

MIDDLE EAST STUDIES …, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of Emotion, Performance, and Temporality in Arab Music: Reflections on Tarab

Cultural Anthropology, 2003

Page 1. Emotion, Performance, and Temporality in Arab Music: Reflections on Tarab Jonathan H. Sha... more Page 1. Emotion, Performance, and Temporality in Arab Music: Reflections on Tarab Jonathan H. Shannon Hunter College, CUNY It is a late autumn day in Damascus, and I am back paying a visit to my friend &amp;quot;Adil al-Zaki. owner of the Sham Dan cassette shop. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Land of Beautiful Vision: Making a Buddhist Sacred Place in New Zealand by Sally McAra

American Ethnologist, 2010

Good books often do the eye-opening work of debunking popular stereotypes. The Hidden Life of Gir... more Good books often do the eye-opening work of debunking popular stereotypes. The Hidden Life of Girls is that kind of book, offering welcome relief from widely available yet flawed accounts of gendered speech. It accomplishes other goals set out by Goodwin, but its achievement extends beyond her stated aims. Discussion of the book might be contextualized in any number of ways, but only a few are considered here. I am most impressed by how Goodwin questions gender stereotypes, engages with an appropriate methodology, and looks at how class status is enacted.

Research paper thumbnail of Sound of Africa! Making Music Zulu in a South African Studio

American Anthropologist, 2004

... Three songs are &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;&amp;amp;amp;am... more ... Three songs are &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;traditional&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27; mbaqanga, three are wedding songs, one is reggae-inflected, and one a slow ballad.They were recorded with the additionof sessionmusicians called in byWest, the pro-ducer: Lemmy Special Mabaso overdubbed a saxophone part onto the bal-lad ...